THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER Guitarist Interviewed On KBZS-FM's 'The Oath' (Audio)

On June 11, Johnny Thrash of the "The Oath" metal radio show, which airs on the KBZS-FM / 106.3 The Buzz station in Wichita Falls, Texas, conducted an interview with guitarist Ryan Knight of Michigan's unstoppable sons of molten melodic death metal THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER. You can now listen to the chat in two parts below.

"The Oath" airs Saturday nights from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Central time. Listen in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma at 106.3 and online worldwide at www.1063thebuzz.com.

"Ritual", the new album from THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, will be released in Europe on June 17 and in North America on June 21 via Metal Blade Records. The effort will also be available as a box set, limited to 2,000 units including special, exclusive digibook, witch board, magic wand, sage, incense sticks and coffin nails. The CD was once again be produced by Mark Lewis (TRIVIUM, BURY YOUR DEAD, DEICIDE),who also worked on 2009's "Deflorate".

Frontman Trevor Strnad considers "Ritual" "the most focused THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER strike of all time."

"The whole thread of the songs is more tied together than ever before," explains Strnad. "Part of it was kind of like, 'What can we do that's the most BLACK DAHLIA MURDER thing? What's going to be the most quintessential BLACK DAHLIA MURDER thing we can do?' That's kind of what we set our foothold in. And 'Ritual', it just lends itself to that it's mysticism and magic and all of that. Everyone has an association with some kind of ritual, so we just thought it was the next logical step."

Recalling the writing process that led to "Ritual"'s eventual 12 songs, Strnad says that "every song that got brought forth was exciting and more three-dimensional, more twists and turns, more surprises. There's more ups and downs and taking people on a journey this time."

Co-founder Brian Eschbach, meanwhile, credits the presence of fellow guitarist Ryan Knight, who joined the band for "Deflorate", with helping to move things forward on this particular venture.

"It's been more collaborative than it's been in years," Eschbach notes. "The last two albums ('Deflorate' and 2007's 'Nocturnal') I wrote most of the music, and this one it's almost a 50-50 effort between me and (Knight). He lifted what we were doing on the last album so much from what we've done before, his different techniques and stylings that he knows how to wield. It's really exciting for us to have that be part of the band now." Strnad adds that Knight "is an educated musician, and he's brought that kind of aspect into the band, too. We came to him having higher expectations, and he's exceeded all of those."

Interview Part 1:

Interview Part 2: